A liquid crystal display device (hereinafter abbreviated as an LCD) is a display device that is characterized by its thinness, light weight, and low power consumption. It has been used for many purposes, such as a mobile phone, a PDA, an automotive navigation system, a personal computer monitor, and a television, as well as for information displays and the like, such as a guideboard in a station, an outdoor bulletin board, and the like.
A current LCD controls arrangement of liquid crystal molecules; changes a polarization state of light transmitted through a liquid crystal layer; and adjusts an amount of light transmitted through a polarizing plate in order to perform display. Display performance of the LCD is affected by an orientation state of the liquid crystal molecules. As orientation states of the liquid crystal molecules, there are an orientation state when a voltage is not applied and an orientation state when an electric filed is applied. Particularly, in order to control the orientation state of the liquid crystal molecules when a voltage is not applied, an alignment film is commonly applied on a substrate.
However, when the alignment film is formed also under a sealant region of the LCD by a printing method or the like, such as flexo printing, offset printing, or the like, adhesion between the sealant and the substrate deteriorates. In order to address this issue, a patterning method of an alignment film in which the alignment film formed in an unnecessary portion is removed by radiating a laser beam after the alignment film is formed is disclosed, for example (see Patent Document 1, for example). Furthermore, a liquid crystal display device in which a structure to remove an alignment film is disposed at a location where a sealant is disposed is disclosed (see Patent Document 2, for example).
Here, when attaching the sealant on a glass substrate with a resin film therebetween, from a standpoint of securing a sufficient level of adhesion strength, there has been disclosed an electro-optical device that has a pair of substrates facing each other, a resin film disposed on at least one of the pair of substrates, a sealant that bonds the pair of substrates to each other with the resin film therebetween, and an electro-optical substance disposed in a space between the pair of substrates surrounded by the sealant, for example. In this electro-optical device, an opening is provided in a region of the resin film that is in contact with the sealant so as to expose the substrates, and the width of the opening is narrower than the width of the sealant (see Patent Document 3, for example). However, effects of the alignment film were not taken into account, and there has been no disclosure regarding this issue.